No, it is immersive! In fact, I've been telling people that when they say "immersive", they REALLY mean immersive. Long hours for several weeks.

Just letting C know that studnets don't need one or two years of the language to go! CET has programs for the absolute beginner. My posting was to check whether there were any other programs in other cities. But I've since discovered that Beijing is the optimum place to learn because of the consistency of the dialect spoken.

Carolyn is partially correct in saying that many college based programs require two years of Chinese before studying in Beijing. However, TBC(The Beijing Center--a Jesuit college consortium administered through Loyola Marymount) and several others recognize that many students who want to study in China may not have Chinese offered in their colleges. My daughter had no Chinese language instruction before going to Beijing last year, had a tremendous experience, and came home proficient in Mandarin beyond the intermediate college level of instruction. TBC is a great program and has its own website which describes the program in great detail.

CET is $5k per term not including airfare and incidentals or any additional travel. If he gets a year's worth of credit, it will be a bargain compared to private U. But if he only gets a semester, it's about the same cost as Private U.